Life Lessons from Faeries and Frogs
** The following contains spoilers for Morita Hiromitsu’s Thumbelina – A Magical Story. **
It’s easy to take family and friends for granted, especially when we’re at odds with them.
One of the most volatile relationships is the parent-child dynamic. In addition to providing food, shelter, love, and protection, parents impose rules, make decisions, administer punishment, and children don’t always understand why.
Maya, the main character in Thumbelina – A Magical Story, is an incorrigible little girl who is transported into the land of her mother’s dreams while trying in vain to wake her from a magical sleep. To further complicate things, Maya’s now less than six inches tall. While in the Land of Dreams, Maya meets a frog, a sugar faerie, a swallow, and many others who want to help her get home. Each new friend Maya makes chips away some of her selfishness and carelessness.
But one more obstacle stands in the way of getting back to her mother. Maya must face the bringer of nightmares. In a battle of wills, Maya prevails and is swept home on the wings of her swallow friend. Back in her own world, the people who knew Maya before are stunned by the change in her. Instead of being unruly and rude, Maya is now a friend to everyone and lends her help whenever she can. All because of one magical adventure that taught her to care about others.
Ephesians 4:31-32 (KJV) says, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
Maya’s story is a reminder of how obeying Christ’s command to be tenderhearted toward others, even parents and friends we sometimes disagree with, can change the way we see people and the world around us.
Is there someone in your family you often disagree with? Why not make it a priority to shine forth the love and mercy of God to them next time you meet?
D. T. Powell is an award-winning fanfiction writer and author of fantasy short stories.To fill her writing day, she works on original stories, extensive fanfiction endeavors, editing friends’ work, and learning more about the craft of writing.